Electric and automatic control of engines, dynamos, and batteries.



L; SUNDERLAND- & G. O. PILLINGBR. ELEGT IO AND AUTOMATIC CONTROL OF ENGINES, DYNAMOS, AND BATTERIES. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 17, 1910.

1,054,368. Patented Feb. 25, 1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

L. SUNDBRLAND &.G. O. PILLINGER. ELEGTEIG AND AUTOMATIC CONTROL OF ENGINES, DYNAMOS, AND BATTERIES.

' APPLICATION FILEI) NOV. 17. 1910.

1,054,368, Patented Feb. 25, 1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

5 r 1 r r f F :l 3 a 1 n A v W/ T/VE 65E 6 H //v I/E/Y TW? 6 a prime mover LEO sUNnERtAND AND GILBERT ELECTRIC AND U'romA'rIc coir-r30; or ENGINES, DYNAMOS. AND BATTERIES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Applicationflled Novembef'17, 1910. Serial 1161591915.

-To all whom it may concern: 1

Be it known that Wc,-Lno SUNDERLAND and GILBERT Chem PILLINGE subjects of. theKing of Great Britain andfIreland, and

residents of Testminstenl county of London, England, have invented certain new and use '1 Improvements 7 in the Electric and Automatic Control of Engines, Dy-

namos, and Batteries, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to automatic elec-' tric generating s stems of the kind in which rives a dynamo which supplies current to a battery which isin parallel with the lamps or other consum tion circuit, the prime mover being starte and stopped automatically by electrical devices operated by the battery according to the requirements of the system andthe drain upon its supply of current.

Our invention is especially useful used with that variety of the above described ty. e in which the iprime 'mover'is an interna combustion engine oif any other kind requiring a certain impetus to start it and in which the battery is emplloyed, when the drain upon the system reac es a certain point,'todrive the dynamo as a motor to give an initial'impetus to the prime mover.

The main object ofour-invention is to produce a system in whicl1: firstly, thebattery is reduced to the smallest dimensions possible; and secondly, its voltage is kept at a nearly constant maximum. The advantages of such a system over those heretoforeexisting being in the first place a reduction in the cost and Weight of the battery. and

secondly an increase in efiicie'ncy because as the current from the dynamo is supplied (in a sense) direct to the lamps or other cause of consumption, the battery as far as possible merely performs starting functions,

Other objects and advantages of the 'in-' veulion' will be apparent from the following detailed description whentaken in connection with the accompanying drawings;

7 The accompanying drawings illustrate the manner in which our invention iscarried into efi'ect. I

Figure 1 1s a diagrammatic vlew ofthe invention, including the various connections.

Fig. 2 is an end elevation Fig. 3 a sideiele vation. Fig.4 a plan View of an exhaustvalve lifter appertaining to an lnternal combustion engine in connection-with the arrangement. j

Referring to l ig 4, We will first describe thev differential relay. The coilA is'in series with the lamp circuit X. The coil B is in 'sh unt across the battery Y and as elsewhere m thls diagram relay circuit wiring isshown. in'thin lines." 1'.The co'ilA is-provided with'an armatured pivoted at its'center, and the coil B with an armature b pivoted at one endand the two-armatures are connected by a link. .Whn thecoil A is thestronger the armatures assume the position shown in full -lines, 'when the coil B'is termined small proportion of lamps is the batt'ery from the leads 1 and 2,- but the series coil A is not' sufficiently energized to overcome the pull of the coil B, and the armatures retain the position shown in dotted csoILrILLINGER, or wnsrlvmvsruaitonnonp LENGLAND.

Patented Fat-.25, 19.13.

the, stronger they assume the position shown in dotted lines. When less than the predes'witched on, the current is obtained-from lines. -In the case of more than this small proportion of lamps being switched on the coilA is sufliciently energized to pull the' armatures 'into the position shown'in full lines. The armatures, or one of them, {are connected so as toform partloftherelay circuit ofthe coil C which is energized from the battery by the leads-3 and 'andfwhen the. armatures are in the position shown in coil C lifts its'core c and raises the contact lever D"against the action of aspring or gravity from the position (03), indicated in. dotted ou tline,to the position shown across ;the rheostat contacts which closes the circuit of the dynamo Q through the leads 5, the contacts and-the rheostat lever D, the lead 4, the battery 'Y and the leads?) and6 thus causing the dynamo Q to rotate as a -motor and im artingthe necessary initial movement tot e prime mover? by means of thebelt .p as shown. At the; same time a contact piece d onthe rheostat lever D comes into, contact with a contact piece It and completes the relay circuit of-th'e sole-- noid H which controls the valve of the prime mover P. When the prime mover is an intcrmiljcombnsticn engine. as indicated We mayniake use of at artof our invention to be hereinafter described When the engine is thus automaticallystarted and its speed is sufficient to rotate "the dynamo as generator full lines the relay circuit is closed and the tery any charging of the battery which m relay circuit of the valve coil to they be necessary proceeds, the dynamo simu taneously taking up the load of the e itra lamps switched on, and the working'of any other current consuming device connectedto the system. switched ed the coil B causes the relay circuit of the coil C to be opened, cutting the motor oil from the battery and opening the stop the engine. Should less than the predetermined small portion of lamps be switched into the circuit and allowed to burn indefinitely the coil A will not be sufficiently energized and will in that case derive their current from the battery whose E. M. F. will fall until the pull of the shunt coil will be reduced below that of the series coil and the that the shunt coil armature is-released before the E. M. F. of the battery falls so low as to be too weak to actuate the dynamo as a motor.

Referring to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, a method of operating the valve mechanism of the prime mover 18 illustrated which is applicable to internal combustion motors. The object of.

this part of the invention is to insure that the engine should automatically complete its cycle as a driving motor when receiving its initial rotation and by the same means immediately to prevent the engine from drawing a charge into the cylinder when the automatic apparatus is operated tocut ofi the engine. The solenoid H (also shown in Fig. 4) has a core h which is jointedto a lever Mlmounted fast on a spindle N sup-' ported by a bearing bracket 0. The opposite end of the spindle carries a crank R which is pivoted to a bar S. This bar S is pulled o, the left in Fig. 2 by a sprin T and passes between guides U and is for ed to embrace without touching the exhaust. valve spindle V at the lower end of the latter' in order not to interfere with its guiding.

exhaustvalve is open the engine can neither draw nor compress a charge and is out 01".

operation.

It is obvious that the solenoid H may be used'to operate any other suitable valve o v o The circuit is indicated by arrowheads in Fig. 4: or the drawings, and by reference When the' lamp circuit is engine will be started. It is clear that the coils and battery must be so proportioned.v

nos-sacs thereto it will be observed that said circuit starts from battery Y and follows lead 4 to armatures b and a, thence follows lead v3 through coil C to battery Y.

Havingi...-:'now,' described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Lett-e'rs Patent of the United States is 1.' In ail-apparatus of the class described, the combination with a prime mover, of means including a batter for automatically starting the same direct y a small proportion of the load is exceeded or-a diminution occurs in the electro-motive force of said battery.

2. In an automatic electric generatingsystom, the combination with a prime mover, of a battery, a lighting circuit, a coil in series with said circuit, a switch circuit, an armature operated by said coil to close the switch circuit to start said prime mover immediately a small proportion of the load is exceeded in the lighting circuit, and acoil in shunt across the battery tending directly or indirectly to oppose the movement of the armature by the series coil proportioned and adapted to yield to the series coil if the electro-motive force of the battery is substantially diminished.

3. In an automatic electric generating system, the combination with a prime mover provided with a controlling valve, of a dynamo, a battery adapted'to operate the dynamo as a motor, a lighting circuit, a coil in series therewith, a motor-starting relaycircuit, an armature operated by the coil to close the said circuit when a proportion of the loadis exceeded in the lighting circuit, a coil in shunt across the battery tending to oppose the movement of the said armature and adapted to yield to the series coil if the electro-motive force of the battery is diminished, and a 'motor-starting switch adapted to throw current from the battery into the dynamo to drive it as a motor and to operate said valve to allow the engine to obtain power.

4. In an automatic electric generating system, the combination with an internal combustion engine, of a dynamo adapted to operate as a motor to initially operate said drive the same as a motor, and means 'oper-.

ated by the motor-starting switch to relieve the co npression in the cylmder of the ca gine when the motor-starting switch is off and to withdraw such relief when the switch is on. 5. In an electric generating system of'the kind described, the combination with a prime mover, of automatic means including abattery for starting the prime mover when a small proportion of the load is exceeded and if the E. 'M. F. of the battery is reduced gulpistantially as'and for the purposes speci- 6. In an electric generating system of the kind described the combination with an internal combustion engine, of a battery, a relay coil, operated when a small proportion 15 LEO SUNDERLAND. GILBERT CECIL PILLINGER.

WVitnesses ROBERT HUNTER,

E. C. AXE. 

